Chapter 269: Choosing a Gift
After finishing the exams, on the last day waiting for the results, there were no classes to attend at Shuchiin.
Many students looked like patients who had just recovered after leaving the intensive care unit, the whole school filled with a cheerful atmosphere. Those who were tired collapsed onto their desks to rest, while those still with energy discussed where to go out tomorrow.
Tomorrow was Christmas Eve.
Sakurai sat at his seat, flipping through his phone.
Ishigami Yuu: [Sakurai-senpai, I'm thinking, for Christmas what kind of gift would be good to give.]
Sakurai's finger pressed on the screen, a few seconds later he deleted the line he had just finished typing.
Sakurai: [Ishigami, this is something you should go ask your kind senpai-chan, not me.]
Ishigami Yuu: [Kind senpai-chan? Do I know someone like that?]
Kaguya: ʰᵘʰ (ꐦ○_○）✧
Sakurai rubbed his brow.
Kaguya-san, you helped him so much before, it was completely redundant to the extreme. Moreover, he's an ungrateful bastard.
Well, maybe that was a bit too harsh.
Ishigami Yuu: [You mean Shinomiya-senpai? I already asked, Shinomiya-senpai said she would go shopping with the other girls for gifts…]
So the one left out is me?
Sakurai typed.
Sakurai: [Why not go ask Shirogane?]
Ishigami Yuu: [Myuu-senpai has never even been in love, he doesn't seem reliable....]
Shirogane: (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Sakurai continued typing.
Sakurai: [Choosing a gift is actually very simple, usually when it comes to gift exchanges, you just need to make sure your gift isn't hated. That means avoiding useless stuff. You want to give Tsubame-senpai a gift, right? Then you also need to prepare a separate one.]
A Christmas gift requires two parts: one for the exchange, and one separate gift for the person you like.
Ishigami Yuu: [Sakurai-senpai, I understand what you said above. But I feel that sincerity is what's most important.]
Sincerity more important? Ishigami, you just simply said out loud a problem that is not simple at all.
Do you know how impossible it is to measure sincerity? No matter how much sincerity you have, if the other person doesn't feel it, then it's just trash. Do you understand?
Sakurai: [Let me ask, what are you planning to give right now?]
Ishigami Yuu: [Velvet pajamas.]
Sakurai: ∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?
After reading that message, Sakurai Saki turned to look at his deskmate, who was also his girlfriend – Hayasaka 'super cute' Ai-chan.
She was chatting with her close friend beside her, Suruga Subaru.
"Ai-chan, let me ask you something."
"What is it, boyfriend-kun?" Hayasaka Ai smiled sweetly at Sakurai Saki, but asked back instead.
"A guy giving a girl he isn't dating a set of pajamas as a Christmas gift, what do you think?"
Hayasaka: (·•᷄ࡇ•᷅ )
Ai-chan's expression looked like she had just seen a pervert, "Gross, that's disgusting. Do guys really give that kind of thing? Any girl receiving it would probably throw it away immediately, right?"
Sakurai Saki nodded.
Sakurai: [Ishigami, that's kinda gross. Giving intimate items to the girl you like, and even wanting her to wear it, that thought is too raw, it makes people feel sick. That's my girlfriend's opinion.]
Ting ting.
Ishigami Yuu: […Really that gross?]
Sakurai Saki scratched his head.
Sakurai: [Let me tell you first, for Christmas gifts, it's best not to give overly intimate things. Like bedroom items or underwear are basically all NG. Also don't give overly cliché things, like teddy bears or crystal balls, that kind of gift even if a girl receives it she won't be happy.]
Feeling like he might have gone a bit too far, Sakurai Saki added.
Sakurai: [But this also depends on whether the other person has good feelings toward you. Gifts from the person they like, as long as they're not too much, girls won't refuse. Does Tsubame-senpai like you?]
This time, the reply came unusually slow.
Ting ting.
Ishigami Yuu: [Senpai… she doesn't hate me..... I think so...]
Ishigami: (ಥ﹏ಥ)
…Took several minutes just to come to that conclusion? Ishigami, are you alright?
Sakurai Saki propped his right cheek with his hand, yawning out of boredom.
If it weren't for having no classes today and being too free, he wouldn't even bother caring about the other's romantic progress.
Sakurai: [If you're not sure whether she likes you or not, then just give a normal gift.]
Ishigami Yuu: [How about soap?]
Sakurai Saki: [That's a bit gross already. Didn't I already tell you, intimate items are not okay.]
Ishigami Yuu: [Isn't that just an ordinary daily necessity?]
Daily necessity? Do you even know which parts of a woman's body soap touches?
The answer is: all of them!
Breasts, butt, limbs, even that place will come into contact!
This Ishigami, has his standards already fallen this low?
Sakurai: [Anything that comes into contact with the body, it's best not to give. Jewelry and such… if the favorability isn't high enough, you can't give those either.]
Ishigami Yuu: [Sakurai-senpai, after school let's go pick gifts together!]
Sakurai Saki put his phone down, then turned again to look at Hayasaka Ai.
"Honey, after school you're going out shopping with Kaguya-san and the others, right?"
"Mm? You already knew?"
"Come home early, it's really cold outside."
Conversation ended.
Sakurai Saki typed: [Alright. LOFT at Ginza Icchoume, we'll go there then.]
...
At noon, Hayasaka Ai and some friends from class pushed tables together to eat lunch, while Sakurai Saki brought his bento to the student council room.
"So warm."
He stepped into the room, muttering to himself.
Although the classroom also had air conditioning, the larger space and more people meant the effect wasn't as good as the student council room.
"Sakurai, you came here to eat lunch too? Why not eat with Hayasaka-san?"
"Got abandoned." Sakurai Saki said as he sat down by the sofa.
Shirogane Miyuki didn't believe him.
Sakurai Saki opened his bento.
What he had been eating recently was no longer the same as before, now his bentos were all made by Ai-chan.
His girlfriend's bento: on top of the rice, besides sesame seeds there were also seaweed cut into the shape of a heart.
Hyasaka: ♡(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ♡
"Cough~ scary." Shirogane Miyuki glanced over, sucking in a breath of cold air.
This kind of bento, just one look made his whole body get goosebumps.
The love overflowing inside it was already so sweet it was sickening, for single people the damage was immeasurable!
"Sakurai, do you eat this kind of bento every day now?"
Being called out like that, Sakurai Saki also felt a bit embarrassed, so he picked up the heart-shaped seaweed to eat first, "She insists on making it like this, I don't have a choice."
"Perhaps this is the downside of having a girlfriend."
Sakurai: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Shirogane: (눈_눈)
"Sakurai, lately you're really asking for a beating, the old you was better." Shirogane Miyuki said irritably.
Ever since the school trip, Sakurai Saki had fully entered romance mode, constantly mentioning his girlfriend at every turn.
He wasn't like this before.
"The old me was like what?"
Shirogane Miyuki was countered by the question, left speechless.
He set his chopsticks down, finished chewing the vegetables in his mouth then…
Uncertainly said: "You weren't interested in anything, especially not the opposite sex. At the end of last July, when you had just entered the student council, the way you looked back then was really fierce, do you know what nickname the rumors out there gave you?"
"What?"
"Shuten Douji. A type of youkai that seduces women with its appearance, then eats them."
"This is the first I've heard of it, and it doesn't fit me at all."
"You see, the old you, when hearing this kind of topic, would definitely show an expression like you wanted to kill someone. But now you just joke about it." Shirogane Miyuki said with emotion: "You've really changed quite a lot."
"Perhaps." Sakurai Saki didn't refute.
People all change.